Toshiba Satellite C655-S5512 Intel Pentium B960 2.2GHz 4GB 320GB Reviews

Customer Ratings:

I really like this computer, until it stops working. Bought it to Skype with my kids while on vacation and for school. The day before we left it just wouldn't turn on, only had it for a week or two. So I exchanged it at the store and now five months later it has happened again. This time during finals and they want me to send it away to be fixed. Since the same thing has happened to me twice on 2 different devices (at the worst times!) i would say to keep shopping..

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I bought this laptop for school not too long ago. The specs aren't too terribly impressive, but it gets the job done for the most part. The build quality is not very good, even for the low price I paid for it.

First, after having the laptop for about 6 months, one of the hinges broke and the screen came loose. Every time I closed it, I had to squeeze the end so the hinges would allign. I was having to angle the screen closer by about an inch so the loose screen would drop back to where I wanted it. Fortunately, Toshiba fixed it without any problems.

Second, it does not come with a recovery partition. You have to create a back-up disc from Windows, but you have to use their buggy software to do it. Toshiba's disc burning software is embaressingly slow. I finally gave-up after 2 1/2 hours and I'm not willing to spend $30 on a recovery disc. I'm a student, so I was able to get a copy of Windows and do a clean install.

Third, the trackpad sucks. I use the tap-click feature because it's easier for mr. The problem is that is constantly giving me false taps. When I'm writing a paper, every four sentences, the trackpad records a false tap and the cursor moves to a random paragraph on my paper.

I should have spent a little more and got a Dell or HP.

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I purchased this computer used for $260 dollars. I installed 8 GB RAM for $50 and a solid state disk drive (SSD) for $125 dollars. So, for a $435 dollar investment I now have a nice laptop that boots windows in 10 seconds.

The B960 isn't an i7 by any means, but I have an Acer i7 with a similar configuration of memory and SSD disk and this Toshiba does what I need it to do just fine. I have no complaints. I mostly surf the web which is lightning fast with the SSD and use MS Office. I also run turbo tax and quicken and they all perform just fine.

I'm running Win 7 64 bit, so I can't comment if Win 8 would bring this machine to its knees.

This Toshiba was so easy to work on installing the memory and hard drive. On a B960 Acer where I recently did a similar memory and hard drive upgrade, I had to totally disassember the Acer and dismantle it down past the motherboard. The Toshiba has trap doors that made the upgrades a breeze.

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I love the finish, which is kinda textured so you don't have to look at the smears of the shining finish ones. It is very expensive looking and runs like a dream. I am very pleased with all its features.

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I bought this laptop March 2012 for personal/home use. I loved this laptop, especially loved having the numeric keypad on the side. 6 months later it crashed. Unfortunately I did not purchase extra coverage but luckily it was still covered under the 1yr warranty. I was able to send it in to Toshiba for repairs & have it returned to me faster than expected. (the customer service by the way was awesome.) 8 months after that my daughter damaged my screen therefore that had to be replaced. I had someone to replace the damaged screen with one I purchased on amazon. The replacement actually looked better than the original. ok. still good until a month ago when certain keys suddenly stopped working....specifically the z, ?/ key, the zero on the numeric pad & all four arrows. yes you can use the onscreen keyboard but it is extremely annoying trying to type with your mouse. I've searched for solutions on the internet but none have worked for me. I'm looking at having to either buy a new laptop or possibly pay an arm and a leg to have this repaired. I would not recommend buying this laptop unless you only plan to use it for a few months and that would be a total waste of money.

Buy Acer AS4830T-6678 14" Laptop (Intel i3-2370 Processor, 320GB Hard

Customer Ratings:

Contrary to the Amazon product features description, this particular model does not have bluetooth installed, so keep that in mind if ever bluetooth constitutes an important feature for you. This laptop also has an integrated, non-user replaceable battery, which could be an issue 2 or 3 years from now when the battery dies (following the apple/ultrabook trend). The weight is also a bit heavy for the sleek form factor.

Enough of the cons and on to the pros...

Price Compared with other laptops with comparable specs the price is very competitive

Processor Very capable processor with Passmark score of 2862 can handle anything you care to throw at it (aside from graphics intensive games, though I personally haven't tested it out).

Looks Brushed aluminum lid and metal accents on the faux speaker grill look classy

Sound Dolby home theater works wonders when you connect a set of headphones

Battery life I got 6.5 hours on the first charge, though I'm still conditioning the battery. It's advertised to get 8+ hours.

Power brick Small, light and compact

OS from the feedback I've been reading on Windows 8, I'm glad I stuck with Windows 7 this time around. Maybe I'll consider Windows 9.

In summary, it's a handsome, powerful, affordable laptop.

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If this computer had a built-in light, like Lenovo's think light, it would be perfect. Otherwise, I like the design. It really is a pretty computer. Fast. Runs cool. Speaker sound is excellent. Long battery life. Key placement good too. Yeah, I really like this one.

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This laptop is the epitome of an amazing laptop. It NEVER crashes, lags, or breaks down and I've had it for a while now! It's amazing and I'd recommend it over any other laptop the Sonys, the Toshibas, HPs, Asus, and even the Macs. It's reliable and best part is, for $450 you're getting quite a steal of a deal!!!

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I've had great performance on this computer since I bought it last summer. For the price, I would definitely recommend this Laptop!

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I love everything about it except that it doesn't have a number keypad. Super fast, runs very cool on your lap.

Review of Acer Aspire Celeron M 1.86GHz 512MB 80GB CDRW/DVD 14-Inch Vista

Customer Ratings:

We purchased this laptop in 2006 or 2007 when we had dial up and now we still have it and use it as our family's primary computer. Don't get me wrong, we are ready for an upgrade but this computer really lasted us well. We have teenagers and no one is gentle with it. Although I know people complain about Vista, we haven't had any issues with it. You can burn CD's, edit pictures, watch movies, connect it to the TV, all basic things with no issues. Definitely a worthy investment. We did upgrade the memory when we bought it though since it didn't come with much...super easy to install though.

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I've owned my Acer Aspire 3680 for three years and I love it!! I've never had any problems whatsoever with any part of it. I'm not a gamer, but I am into Graphic Design. I don't know how well it performs with games, but it has absolutely no problem running any of my Adobe Creative Suite programs which several of my friends complain about taking a while to load on their laptops. I don't use it too much anymore just because I got an Acer Aspire Netbook because it is easier to carry with me to school and traveling. I recommend this computer and all Acer computers to anyone and everyone!!

Buy HP - Pavilion DV6-6B27NR - Intel Quad Core i7-2670QM 2.2GHz - 8GB

Customer Ratings:

When I found out I could buy this for $700 I questioned why this listing even existed. So why does this exist?!?!?!?!?

WHY?!?!?!

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I've had a lot of laptops, and this have never happens to me. When it was one month old it just stopped working, it did nothing!, I contacted the seller and they told there was nothing to do, but to all HP because the return time was up, I called and they told me: "It is not software but hardware, and I although I had an international warranty, there wasn't the pieces in my country so there was nothing to do until I return to the US (because it was a new product)". All this money for these, it was suppose to be one of the best laptops!!. I had a Dell and when I needed the international warranty, they were in my house in three days. Don't buy HP products if you are going to travel. This is the worst experience ever with a customer service and with a laptop.

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This computer is awesome! And for the low price of only $9999 its a bargain! I was going to buys a car but then when this amazing computer worth $600 came out I was sold! best computer Ive ever bought! A steal at $9999 worth $600!!!

ASUS K53E-DS51 15.6-Inch Laptop (Brown) Review

Customer Ratings:

This thing is a powerhouse. Easily cranking out between 2.5 and 3.0 GHz of processing speed. Plays games smoothly and with great buffering rates in high performance. And also great for simple things like watching videos

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I love this laptop, absolutely love it to death. Great for low-end gaming and performance if you're into that stuff. I got this on sale for around $450, so I thought, what they heck let's give it a try.

Pros:

-Plenty of RAM

-Fast

-Somewhat light

-USB 3.0

-Nice Screen size

-Great keyboard

Cons:

-Only 2 USB 2.0 ports and 1 USB 3.0 (But no worries you can buy a hub)

-Short battery life for travel use. It only has around 4 hours of simple use and around 2 for performance

-Poor cooling performance

-Power brick gets really hot

**Update**

After a while now its been about a year since I've had this, and I am very displeased with this laptop. It seems to be getting slower everyday and the sound quality through my headset and microphone have went down too, and I know for sure that it isn't either of them as I have bought brand new ones recently. The CPU gets unusually hot for some reason and the boot time every week or so has gottten longer by a few seconds. I've tried deleting some of my files but everything is too slow. As soon as I get the money I'm getting a better PC and throwing this heap of junk away.

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beautiful design. i especially like the color and cool aluminum finish. keyboard layout is nice and soft keys. only down side is the cursor does not respond as quickly on screen and can be a bit annoying, but honestly overall its a great upgrade from my last laptop

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I love this computer so far. I needed something that could travel with me for my new job that would keep up & so far, this laptop has been wonderful. The only draw back so far is that occassionally the wifi will disconnect for no reason...it always starts right back up but it is annoying.

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speed is fine but touch pad is a little touchy sound needs some help but overall works fine for a novice

Best Dell Inspiron 17R i17RM-5129SLV 17-Inch Laptop (1.8 GHz Core i5 Deals

Customer Ratings:

Good computer. I like the number keyboard on the left and the large screen. I was surprised that it did not come with excel however. I like the long lasting battery as well. I would also recommend getting malware and virus protection on the computer from the get go.

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Love my new computer. Still learning the Windows 8, but otherwise it's perfect! I would recommend this computer. Dell computers are great.

Reviews of Toshiba Satellite C55-A5245 15.6-Inch Laptop (Satin Black in Trax

Customer Ratings:

I am not fan of Windows 8 yet. This Toshiba Satellite C55-A5245 15.6 inch laptop is a deal at the price. Came with 4GB Ram. Opened the cover to look at the ram storage slots. There are 2 slots and only one is used with a single 4 GB Memory card. This laptop can expand up to 16 GB Ram.. Came loaded with Norton--I deleted it immediately and loaded Windows Essential Security which is fine and it is free. The satin black in trax horizon finish on this laptop is beautiful and somewhat like the Dell Matte finish that I have seen. So far, I am very pleased with this laptop.

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It's thin, light weight and runs nearly four hours on a full charge. Like an earlier reviewer the first thing I did was delete the Norton programs.I installed the free AVG anti-virus program I've been using for years on my other computers. It could definitely use more RAM, (I'll be installing some soon), but other than that I have no complaints. A great little laptop, and one of the few that are still available with Windows 7.

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Was looking for a laptop with a Windows 7 operating system. This was for an elderly person used to XP who wouldn't want to learn Windows 8. They've been very pleased with it. Toshiba makes good products.

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A lot of computer in a small package. There is ample room on the keyboard for your hands and wrists, and the keys are larger than most Laptops this size. I got it for $410.00, and that is a extremely good price for what I got.

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I picked up this model for an incredibly low price. The price has gone up since then, so I'm glad I acted when I did. "Moving into" this laptop was just plain easy, and I'm not a computer whiz. Initially, it wouldn't play DVD's. I called Amazon, and they offered to refund my money, no questions asked. Fortunately, shutting the laptop down and restarting solved the DVD problem, but you've gotta love Amazon's customer service! Connecting to the internet was easy. The laptop found the driver for my printer by itself. I use the laptop to surf the web, stream videos, create documents and play DVD's. I love the keyboard, the matte finish, and the sleek profile of this laptop. It's exactly what I wanted. I couldn't be happier. Toshiba and Amazon get five stars from one happy buyer.

Best Fujitsu LifeBook P770 12.1" Notebook PC Deals

Customer Ratings:

This notebook is one of the most powerful laptops in the ultra portable, super compact laptop class. It's not your typical cheap notebook, it costs more then most, but it looks expensive right out of the box, and yes, it's worth every penny, because it offers a great bundle of the most popular options and very latest technologies, in one extremely small but a powerful package! Punch of a Monster in a size of a netbook! A definite show stopper! Will work for years to come with Fujitsu famous assembly quality and top of the line reliability! You will take pride in owning one. Enjoy!

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Reviews of Sony Vaio Laptop VPCEB32FM/WI

Customer Ratings:

Actually, I rarely type reviews, but I have to do so in this case. Due to the rather few number of reviews online (and many of them negative), I just wanted to clear things up so buyers like me can decide whether or not to buy it. (I had to go through hundreds of websites before I finally decided to buy the laptop, a week ago)

BUILD QUALITY AND DESIGN: Excellent, excellent, excellent. The design is very sleek and looks fantastic I think that it is the best designed notebook with a keypad. I looked at other color choices, but the matte silver lid (which doesn't really get fingerprints) and the white interiors are really pleasing to the eye. Build quality is also excellent; the notebook feels as sturdy as a lenovo or a mac. As an owner of several brands of laptops, I can say that this is definitely one of the best built laptops.

CPU/GPU PERFORMANCE: O.K. I could have bought a core i3 laptop for the price, but I don't really care. The CPU/integrated GPU are fine for my browsing, multimedia, and office work needs. I realized that I'd rather spend a little more for overall design and build quality rather than CPU performance; you have to make your own choice depending on priorities.

BATTERY LIFE: I've read several reviews slamming the battery life. I get just over 3 hours web browsing over wifi (I don't really visit too many flash-heavy sites) and almost 4 hours with wifi off at about 40-50% brightness; it could be better, but I guess it's not bad considering the size of the laptop.

KEYBOARD AND TRACKPAD: Excellent, excellent, freakingly excellent. My previous laptop also had a chicklet keyboard, but man, this one is awesome! With a full keyboard, separate arrow keys and a numpad, I think this is the best keyboard ever for this type of form factor. You can always check out the keyboard in a store. Since you are going to spend 90% of your time on the keyboard, I think this is a top priority.

The touchpad is also quite good but doesn't support 2-finger scrolling...

DISPLAY: The display is just about average for this class of laptops. Good colors and you can watch videos up to 45 degree angles with a friend.

BLU-RAY: Awesome

SOUND: Could be better, lacks bass, but is clear.

VAIO SOFTWARE: I actually ended up liking most of the media and system software. If you don't like them, you can always uninstall/disable them to improve startup performance/speed. With 4Gb of RAM, I don't really worry though..

QUICKWEB: A dedicated button gets you online in about 20 seconds...No need to boot up windows for a quick web fix...One of the reasons I bought the laptop.

I always regretted not having bought a mac, but not anymore. Everything about this laptop rocks, and I tried and used A LOT of laptops before settling on this one. Would I buy it again? Hell, yeah!

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I purchased this laptop about two years ago. The design is sleek and modern. I love the white color, and the inclusion of the camera (skype, here I come). The quality is excellent and the set up was easy. It loads up quickly and wifi works well. I thought the battery-life was durable enough, even though I admit, I don't spend too much time on it. CPU memory is enough for basic home use, however if your goal is to stream a lot of media I would suggest purchasing a higher model with more memory space. This one's more for your bacic internet use.

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I purchased this laptop online from Best Buy on Black Friday for $500 thinking it was a good deal. I agreed with the other reviewer that this should have been price $300-$350. The battery life only last about 3hrs or less, and the speaker volume is HORRIBLE!!! The on/off button is easily pressed and shouldn't be there. Besides that everything else is just ok.

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I got this laptop last year during black Friday. I was in need of a new laptop and this just jumped out at me. I decided to take the plunge and go for the $100 extra option. It gave me one more Gigabyte of Ram(4 in total), a Blu-Ray Drive, a laptop bag, The Karate Kid (Blu-Ray), and some Anti-Virus Software (I didn't care about this since it seemed that they just got old software out of a box and gave it away and free virus protection that is better can be found online). So in total I got it for $499.

Laptop has been great for the time I have had it. Still does all that I could ever want it to do at good speed. I did configure it a bit to make it boot faster and to have little to no applications running on the back ground. For a laptop with an Intel Pentium 2Gz Dual core and a 320 GB 5400 RPM Hard Drive. My boot up is usually no more than 50 seconds.

Vaio software is really great. Gives you ease of checking for updates for computer and to do computer diagnostics. System Recovery works well with Windows 7.

Pros:

+ Great Design

+ Blu Ray Player

+ HDMI output

+ 3 usb plugs

+ VGA output

+ E-SATA conection

+ Ease of usage

+ Great keyboard

Neutral:

> Average processor

> Descent display

> Customization

> Durability (No breakdowns in 14 months)

Cons:

Poor sounding speakers

Low battery life

Not many upgrades

Conclusion

When I bought it, $500 made sense for a laptop like this. Now I would say the price tag should be around $300-$350 for a laptop with these specs. The things this laptop have going for it is the Blu Ray player and the great keyboard. So far I will keep using my laptop for school but I am looking forward to upgrading to a much more powerful desktop in the near future.

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This computer is a bit on the heavy side especially when needing to carry along to study groups. All in all the computer works great for basic student needs (essays, research, excel). I use it everyday and it hasnt crashed or gave me any issues whatsoever along with webroot security essentials. Sitting in a library studying next to many mac users doesnt make me feel out of place with an equally elegant designed sony vaio either.

Discount Dell Latitude E6430 - 14" - Core i7 3520M - Windows 7 Professional

Customer Ratings:
List Price: $1,299.99
Sale Price: $949.99
Today's Bonus: 27% Off

I spent some time with this machine when I set it up for a customer we bought it for. The machine I am reviewing is the "s" model, which was custom configured for the customer.

This is the newest variant of the Latitude business-class notebook PC's. The e6430 is designed to have the same footprint as a 13" notebook, but sports a larger 14" display. It's still really compact, although not as thin or light as a competitor's notebook, but that's ok because this isn't designed to be an ultra-lightweight machine. It's still about 4 lbs, which is a couple lbs. lighter than the E6500 or D5500 series Lats. It's pretty thin, not as thin as my MacBook Pro though.

It's made mostly out of plastic, which isn't a bad thing because plastic is lightweight and durable, and if you drop it, it won't dent or deform like an aluminum or aluminum-clad machine. The top of the display cover and some trim pieces are clad in brushed aluminum though, and that makes it look really nice and adds some scratch resistance. You still get the same features as the bigger Lats like the weird pointer button and finger buttons above the trackpad, which is also programmable for multitouch input (pinch to zoom, rotate, etc.). It's a little small, but that's not a problem as I found it really easy to use. The trackpad mouse buttons and palm rests are coated in soft touch rubber, which feels really nice. The keyboard is backlit and has 3 brightness settings. It turns off when you aren't using it though,. The keyboard is sealed underneath to protect the components inside if you splash or spill something on it. The permimeter of the laptop is also reinforced with plastic and the display lid is sealed to the chassis with a rubber seal. The screen lid locks into place with a sturdy latch system. Overall, this machine is very well-built and the build quality is top-notch. It doesn't feel cheap or flimsy, or fragile like some other laptops. I wouldn't feel so bad if I dropped this one as it would probably just scuff the plastic trim whereas with a MacBook or other "unibody" machine, you'd get a big ugly dent.

The OS is Windows 7 Pro 32-bit, which we chose because the RAM is only 4 GB. It will take up to 8 GB, and with only 4 this is still a smoking fast machine.

The 14" display is 1366x768 LED backlit LCD display with the anti glare coating, which for a machine in this price range is just mediocre. There are 2 USB SS 3.0 ports, a VGA, eSATA, mini HDMI, and ethernet ports.It includes a 8x super multi writer drive (DVD R+RW. CD-R R/W) that reads, writes, and re-writes CD's and single or dual layer DVD's. The internal hardware is what makes this machine so great. Inside is Intel's 4000 graphics chip, and one of the most powerful mobile CPU's on the market. The E6430s is configured with Intel's 3rd gen Core i7 3520m quad core CPU 2.9 GHz 4 MB cache, 4 GB 1600 MHz DDR3 RAM, Dell's 1520 802.11 g/n single band mini WiFi card, and the optional Dell Mobility 256 GB SATA 6 gb/s solid state drive (SSD) which was a $600 option and brought the price to this machine up to a hair under $2,100. I also tested this in the less-powerful i5 2.8 GHz CPU and standard hard drive and it's still extremely fast. It performs like a $2,000 laptop should.

The hardware makes this a smoking fast machine. From POST to Windows desktop is a hair under 8 seconds. Apps and large resource-hogging programs like iTunes and Photoshop didn't slow it down at all. Installing things like Windows service packs, updates Office with service packs was very fast. I'm an IT tech, and can honestly say this is the fastest machine I have ever worked on, and I've had my hands on some pretty impressive computers. It will do everything you ask it to and a lot more. It's not an ultra high end entertainment or gaming laptop like the XPS line or Alienware. It doesn't have a super high res screen, super thin chassis, or made of exotic materials. This is designed for a business user as a mobile workstation, and perfect for anyone who needs a fast, portable, rugged, no-nonsense machine with good battery life. I ran this computer without being plugged for over 2 hours and the battery gauge barely moved. I have no doubts this would last for 6 hours on a charge. Plus, it's easy to use. The keyboard isn't cramped and the palm rests are sufficiently large. Dell also doesn't ship their computers with loads of bloatware or unnecessary trial programs that expire, or are just annoying. You can tell that Dell designed this to be a mobile workstation. It also works with the port-replicator dock thanks to the connector port on the bottom, so you can mount extra USB devices, 2 monitors, or other devices when you want to use it like a desktop.

The 14" screen makes viewing documents easy, and is a lot nicer to work on than an ultra book or netbook. However, for a machine costing $2,100, I wished it was thinner, lighter, and had a better display. This is supposed to run with the MacBook Pro 13 and even 15, and I think it does a great job at it, but I think Dell could have done better. The i5 model of this is just as fast and it's about $300 cheaper (minus the SSD).

Pros:

Latest Intel i7 mobile CPU

Fast RAM

SSD

Lightweight

Fantastic build quality

Nice display

Good battery life

Dell quality

2 USB 3.0 ports, HDMI and eSATA

Able to connect to Dell's port replicator dock

Cons:

Display is just mediocre

Could be thinner and lighter

A little on the expensive side

I have no reservations recommending the Latitude 6430s. It's a no-frills, solid, well-built, and high performance business computer, but will be equally at home in your home as much as the office! Check out the new Latitude E6430 line before you shop elsewhere. They might be more expensive, but you do get what you pay for.

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I have been a loyal Dell customer for over 15 years. The E6430 is about to change that. This laptop is the product of a cost cutting exercise. The screen is the main problem. At 1600x900 it's smaller than that of the E6410. The laptop lid size, however, remains the same. There's now a ridiculous strip of wasted space above the screen, the only purpose of which is to make it hard to open when used in an airplane. The screen contrast is abysmal and has a unpleasant "checked" quality to it. The E6410 has an excellent, sharp screen.

I will be returning mine.

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I made my purchases directly through Dell.

I have been a loyal Dell customer since 1999.

Prior to the Latitude E Series Lap Top Dell really had a reputation for building a machine that could be a dependable work-horse.

I have purchased several E Series Latitude note books and I have to tell you. THESE MACHINES ARE POORLY MADE and WILL MALFUNCTION all the time.

I have spent 100's of hours on the phone with tech support with the E series note books. I have had technicians perform onsite service and I have had system replacement. None of this is convenient. It has cost me thousands in lost productivity.

I can't say it enough DO NOT BUY A DELL NOTE BOOK!! You will regret it.

A partial list of Issues that I have had -

1. Mother Board Replaced due to Wireless Malfunction;

2. Mother Board Replaced due to Overheating;

3. Mother Board Replaced due to Finger Print Reader Not Working;

4. Complete System Replacement;

5. Returning a machine to their repair depot only to get it sent back to me with a completely malfunctioning hard drive they made no attempt to notify me that the PC was not fixed; and

6. Complete Hard Drive Replacement.

PS. This is only one of several E Series note books that I use on a regular basis. They all have similar issues. Some of the issues are present right out of the box. Dell makes no effort to ensure that the system that you buy is configured the way you ordered it. Here is the kicker if you are willing to spend a day on the phone with them, they will walk you through the configuration that you bought and paid for when you purchased the machine. In other words, you get to work for Dell but don't get paid.

Reviews of Sony VAIO(R) Duo 11 SVD1122APXB 11.6" Capacitive Touchscreen

Customer Ratings:

The price tag on this configuration might scare some people off for an ultrabook; but consider that you get 8 GB of RAM and a 512 GB SSD. For the price, this is actually quite affordable. Most other manufacturers don't even offer 512 GB and when they do they mark up the product about $600 (for instance see the Fujitsu T902). Also this is a very capable device; it's basically a desktop replacement in a portable form factor. I got this device yesterday afternoon and already love it. I actually ordered it directly from Sony but felt I had to review it on Amazon to do it justice. The case is simultaneously surprisingly sturdy and surprisingly slim and light. In reviews I've read on Amazon and elsewhere, people complained about the weight, but it's lighter than the alternatives and it didn't feel that heavy to me. If you're used to say, an iPad or a Nexus 7 then sure, it's heavy, but that's not really a fair comparison. Those devices are a closed system with very weak processors and not very much RAM or storage, so of course they're lighter. This isn't a tablet; it's an ultrabook. However, it works very well in tablet mode. I ordered it with the extra sheet battery which does make it noticeably thicker and heavier, but I got used to it pretty quickly. People have complained about the battery life, but given how powerful this machine is, the advertised 4 hours and 45 minutes is very good, especially compared to my wife's Macbook Pro, which even with a brand new replacement battery lasts all of 3 hours; and this device is more powerful! With the sheet battery it lasts a very long time with mixed use.

Following are some additional complaints people have had and my analysis:

Screen hard to slide open: Nonsense. It slides open and closed very easily. If you simply read the 2-step instructions that come in the box you'll figure it out in about half a second. The screen is very thin but doesn't feel cheap or flimsy. It's quite well-seated in both positions and feels sturdy. The magnesium supports for the screen in the upright position are very sturdy feeling as well.

There are exposed ribbon cables behind the screen: Doesn't bother me. There is a plastic guard the runs the entire width of the screen. I suppose if you are careless there is an off chance something could get back there, but it doesn't seem likely. Just blow it out with canned air every once in a while, assuming it's necessary.

The trackpoint in the middle of the keyboard is glitchy: Again, nonsense. I've never had the problem people describe elsewhere of hitting the trackpoint when typing 'g' or 'h'. I find myself almost never using it, and when I do, suprisingly, it works just as well if not better than a full sized pad.

There is no trackpad: Not necessary. There is the trackpoint, which works perfectly, a stylus and a touchscreen. Personally I find myself almost always using the touchscreen, as it's more direct. I only use the trackpoint and the mouse buttons when something is too hard to scroll or click on the screen.

It takes 2-20 seconds for the screen to flip: Just plain incorrect. I don't know how the models configured with less RAM perform, but this model flips in 1-2 seconds, tops.

Windows 8 is hard to use: For starters, this has nothing to do with the device. Secondly, I think Windows 8 is actually a really good OS. It's basically Windows 7 with added features for tablet and touchscreen use. As with any major release of Windows, some major things did change and as is always the case it's initially difficult to figure out how to do things that you used to do in the last version. For instance, there's no Start button so to get to things like Computer Management, you have to go through the power user menu. Some things have been renamed; the Run as Administrator option is only available in context menus from the Desktop, so you have to use ctrl + shift + enter from the search menu for most apps; et cetera. As in all versions of Windows, all of these things have an equivalent solution to the old OS in the new OS. If you are not a ready adopter of new tech, and you're one of those people who still pines for XP, or you're just not very computer savvy, then this might not be the device for you. If you're a tech head or a power user or even if you're just open to learning new tech, then I'd make the leap to 8 with this device.

Photoshop doesn't support pressure sensitivity from the stylus: Not really an issue. I do prefer this weren't the case, but it comes loaded with an app called ArtRage Studio Pro. Some artists have called it bloatware, but it's really not; it's a very capable bit of software that frankly might even be better than Photoshop for drawing. It imports from and exports to Photoshop, preserving layers.

The keyboard is too small: I admit that the keyboard takes some getting used to; it takes about a day.

The screen has only one position: Really not an issue at all. The angle is perfect and the device is so small it's easy to turn around if you need to show someone something, or fold it down. If you absolutely have to have that feature for some reason, I'd get the Fujitsu T902 or the Lenovo ThinkPad Twist; but those are much more bulky, heavy devices and not nearly as portable. The Lenovo, for instance, doesn't even support swiping and comes installed with Windows 7. The Fujitsu on the other hand does have a more powerful processor available and a bay for a second battery that doesn't add to the form factor, giving it 12 hours; it was the runner up to this device. I chose the Duo because of it's portability.

There are a few things I wish were done better (but these are all minor):

Can't upgrade. The RAM is soldered to the board and there is no way to open the device without taking apart the whole case. However, it only takes up to 8 GB RAM anyway and 512 GB is more than ample storage. It blows most other devices out of the water; even my desktops only have 256 GB SSDs. Those are really the only things you'd want to upgrade. The only device that does this better is the Fujitsu T902, but you would only upgrade it once to fit 16 GB of RAM and a 512 GB SSD, which you would have to do because Fujitsu charges an arm and a leg to configure it that way. 16 GB is probably overkill anyway unless you are running several VMs; though you could run a couple on this device and be fine.

The screen hangs down and wobbles when touching it a little when laying flat and holding it upside down in your lap while in bed. This goes away completely of course if you fold it down, and I almost never need the keyboard in this position anyway. There's also a very good digital keyboard built into Windows 8.

There is a fair amount of bloatware. However, it doesn't seem to slow the machine down or get in your way.

Reinstalling with all of the correct drivers for touch might be a pain. However, I've had to install specialized drivers for every laptop I've owned when reinstalling Windows.

There is no place to store the cap for the stylus; I ended up just tossing it in a drawer, since I store it in the holder on the sheet battery.

There is no place to store the stylus without the sheet battery.

The volume buttons are hard to reach. However, it's less difficult in tablet mode and in laptop mode there are function keys.

The graphics are not that powerful. They are perfectly sufficient for videos or games that don't require much VRAM, but this is no gaming rig. And of course this chip is a big improvement over previous versions of Intel GMAs. You wouldn't want to use this device for that anyway though; if you're a gamer you want a big screen and a big keyboard. Needless to say, they couldn't fit a big, powerful card in such a small device.

All in all, this is an amazing device that is a joy to use. I've actually found Windows 8 quite user friendly once you know how to work it. There are a few quirks, for example with Xbox Live integration, but again this has nothing to do with the device. Restart times are amazing compared to my Windows 7 desktop machines; we clocked it at 18 seconds for a full restart. Wake from sleep times are almost instant. It transitions seamlessly between the two modes, it's powerful, sturdy, stylish, portable, flexible, et cetera. I feel like this category of device is game changing for some people. I've been waiting for this kind of device before purchasing a tablet device, as I don't like closed systems for anything but my phone; and I think this is one of the few devices currently on the market that actually lives up to the promise of this category. If you can afford this configuration of the Sony Vaio Duo 11, buy it. If not, save up and then buy it. It's a fantastic all around device that you can use for almost anything you would use a desktop system for.

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Light, multifunctional, starts up is instantaneous!

Just face it you need removable storage.

Buying 2 devices will not replace it.

Best Deals for Sony VAIO(R) Duo 11 SVD1122APXB 11.6" Capacitive Touchscreen

Listed this item to include Windows 7, was not. Have fought for almost 1 month to return and stating serial number not the one they sold me. Will not give RMA to return. Will not supply shipping. Stating I lied about listing saying Windows 7 on it. I would think twice before I bought anything from J & R Music and Computers

Buy Apple MacBook Pro MD386LL/A 17-Inch Laptop 4GB Ram, 750GB Hard

Customer Ratings:

As far as I know Amazon has not carried the 17 inch Macbook Pro WITH ANTIGLARE. However, you can purchase the glossy screen variants from them. I was a bit cautious and hesitant to purchase such a big ticket item from Amazon resellers especially at the great prices listed for these 2.5ghz 17 inch Antiglare MBP machines. Alas, the other review from Nester gave a bit of confidence along with the consideration that these resellers are guaranteed through Amazon's A-Z Guarantee. I did on one occasion, about a year ago, did have to contact Amazon about some memory sticks purchased through Ant-Online when they sent me the wrong sticks of ram. Although I didn't have to go through with the claim as Ant-Online did take the ram back.

I placed my order through Mobile Chopper (amazon reseller) Sunday night and received it through through express mail today (wednesday). I am happy to report that my package is the real deal. Brand new, per spec, and with model number md386ll/a listed on the box. The package was shipped from Canada. I was under the impression that MBPs were more expensive there but I could be wrong. Nonetheless, my experience with the reseller was excellent. Ok, I needed to post this review with a commentary about the reseller program because, as mentioned, as of this writing Amazon does not sell the Antiglare models through their site. Not sure why but it is what it is. The resellers seem to be listing these at over $400 to $500 cheaper than the apple store and that's before tax. I am very happy with this purchase, now at this price range I'll be upgrading the ram with Crucial 16gb memory sticks along with a Samsung 830 SSD drive.

It's a lot of money for this laptop so you should definitely check them out at the apple store along with getting some reviews from owners which are not in short supply. In other words, get a real life hands on experience on one of these as a review of the laptop itself won't get you too far. I'm in tech so nowadays it's pretty necessary to be versatile and the need outweighs my personal preference although I can see myself using this as my dedicated machine. (only wish they had Fiddler for Macs).

Update 4/13/12:

I thought I had an issue with the sound and took the machine into the Genius Bar. I was having sound popping and crackling sounds when forwarding/rewinding youtube videos. They promptly replaced it with a new one after a battery of tests. Turns out it wasn't a macbook issue afterall. Youtube must have update their flash player with some bad code as my PCs were suddently making popping sounds too.

Update this machine with 16gb crucial ram directly from Crucial and it's been great. You want to be sure you use reliable memory if you plan on swapping out the hard disk with an SSD in the future. The MBPs are finicky about the kind of ram you use and problems can manifest when pairing them with SSDs in the future as many forums have indicated. Also, since this machine comes with an HD if you plan on upgrading to an SSD in the future keep in mind that Apple disables TRIM on non-Apple SSDs. This includes Samsung 830 and Crucial m4. It can be easily enabled through the terminal using a few shell commands found on the web.

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My huge Thinkpad W701DS was stolen on a recent business trip and I was forced to shop for another laptop. As a developer, I only buy laptops with 17 inch 1920x1200 displays as the development tools take up lots of screen estate. But it appears that the major laptop makers have stopped offering those displays. I'm guessing most folks today use external monitors and keyboards attached to their laptops -making the high rez laptop displays less valuable. Which is okay if you don't travel with the laptop often or have a docking station. In my case, the laptop goes home with me every night and I didn't want the expense and hassle of external monitors and keyboards.

There is still one manufacturer that makes a laptop with the WUXGA 17 display -Apple, on the MacBook Pro. So I bought the latest model, with faster disk drive and anti-glare display. Even upgraded the memory to 16GB (not supported by Apple). This laptop flies and I must say is best laptop I've owned in 18 years. To top it off I'm running Windows 7 Professional, flawlessly.

Pros:

17" WUXGA Anti-glare display at 1920x1200

Power adapter sounds like a small thing but the MacBook Pro power adapter is very clever, small and lightweight. Compared to the 1 lb brick I was carrying with the ThinkPad, it's an absolute delight.

Super skinny and light. Unbelievable really compared to the laptops I've recently used.

Cons:

Keyboard. It has backlighting, which is helpful. But I really miss DEL, HOME, END, PG UP, PG DN, etc. Those keys are used extensively when writing code and the two-key combination alternatives are frustrating.

Couple of other caveats: I'm not a video game player so can't speak to the laptop's video gaming capabilities. Also, don't listen to a lot of music on the laptop. Speakers sound fine to me but I'm not in a position to judge. I use an external mouse so I can't really address the trackpad.

Bottom line: When I bought in April 2012, it was the best laptop available on the market. I have no regrets and I doubt you will either.

Best Deals for Apple MacBook Pro MD386LL/A 17-Inch Laptop 4GB Ram, 750GB Hard

At first I hesitated to order this Macbook Pro model. Amazon does not directly sell Macbook models with different specs other than the most basic, at least not on the 17" model. I wanted the anti glare screen and most importantly the 7200rpm hard drive. The i7 processor is super fast, I was ordering extra memory from Crucial so the only bottle neck was going to be the 5400rpm hard drive from the basic model.

The reason I hesitated is that only sellers from the marketplace sell this model and I didn't know if I should trust such an expensive item to some seller other than Amazon directly. First, the description had some typos, but I contacted the seller and replied me promptly. I have to say that the description seems different if you check it out on the web browser or on the iPad Amazon app. I have no idea why, maybe the sellers have different fields to fill out for each device platform and they don't just do a copy/paste.

In my case, I ordered if from the Silverberries seller. What was strange is that this model was hidden on plain sight. If you search Amazon for Macbook pro 17" you don't get this model as second or third option. I had to specify the search as "Macbook Pro 17 7200" since I was looking specifically for the fast hard drive. Then, I got the search result. I wonder how they sell if the most basic search doesn't display it within the first page or second page.

Even though there are many reviews on the Macbook Pro 17" with the basic specs, there was no review for this model specially sold from Silverberries or a couple other sellers who have it available.

Today (March 1st, 2012) after 15 days of buying it, I am trying to help other buyers with a good review of the seller and the specific Macbook model but I found out that the Silverberries store front is unavailable and this model is available only from Semidevil88. With these strange seller names it is hard to trust them even if they have good feedback. My advice is to always contact the seller before placing and order of over $100 usd.

Overall, my experience with Silverberries and this Macbook model was great. The item arrived on time, well packed and new as described. I will not review the Macbook itself, just go and read other Macbook Pro 17" reviews from the basic model and add that I am completely satisfied with the hard drive speed and the anti glare screen. My only complaint is that I am used to my 17" Toshiba Satellite Pro with a full keyboard and the Mac keyboard is somewhat limited. I wish it had the keypad for fast typing numbers. Other than that, it is much slimmer, ligther and faster than my old Toshiba which is still a decent rig even after 5 years of use.

Honest reviews on Apple MacBook Pro MD386LL/A 17-Inch Laptop 4GB Ram, 750GB Hard

I've had most models of Powerbook and MacBook Pros. This is my second 17-inch with anti-glare screen (typing this on the older one) and I find they are just amazingly reliable machines. Chose to get a discontinued model because the larger non-retina display suits my production and presentation needs much better. Upgraded the Ram to 16Gb. and replaced the HD with a 512Gb SSD. Excellent device.

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Recently bought one through MacMall new-in-box (OnSale has a *real* bad reputation). Third-party sellers are gaining some sales through professionals who are still desiring a 17" HD Apple laptop for editing, etc.; pretty soon these will be totally off the market.

This was my first personal laptop purchase and the first Mac I've worked with in over a year. Setup was actually quite easy, despite the fact my first actions upon getting the computer was to take off the back cover and yank out everything I could and replace it with a superior (SSD, max RAM, extra-large HDD instead of internal optical drive). Lion's "Internet Recovery" allowed me to direct download a fresh install after formatting my new drive with Disk Utility. Around 20-30 minutes and I'm off and running.

~Model MD386LL/A Specifics~

Pros:

Sandy Bridge quad-core is still a top performing CPU. The mobile graphics card isn't what I'm used to, but still quite good for medium range performance.

17" laptop with the Apple form factor that's thinner and lighter than any comparable model. Unibody is also pretty good with heat dissipation. If you want something light and small, buy yourself an Airbook/Ultrabook or a tablet.

Non-Retina models are still user-upgradeable in regards to disk drive, memory and optical drive bay. And the hardware improvements were practically plug-and-play.

Anti-glare screen may seem less "shiny," but I can really see the light reflections/glares on my iPhone 5, so dealing with it on a laptop would've been hell.

Lion's multi-touch features are pretty good for most tasks, save the things I would prefer to have a trackball mouse.

Cons:

Laptop vs. Desktop drawbacks: no CPU overclocking, Turbo Boost's sporadic jumps not much help for things like video/animation rendering.

Still very expensive. More so than the modern, non-Retina models. Best deals are on "fully-loaded" eBay offers, which include professional software suites along with the computer.

Being a discontinued model, there'll be less and less support for these in the next few years. That also means replacement parts will start to be hard to come by towards the end of the model's lifespan.

So far, it's been a great machine, and I look forward to tweaking it further. Will update in the future.

Reviews of Dell Latitude D600 14.1-Inch Laptop - 512MB RAM, 30GB Hard Drive

Customer Ratings:

The Dell Latitude D600 is really a nice little laptop. It has numerous great features like built-in wifi capabilities, 512MB of memory, a highspeed processor that makes this laptop just speed along. I think its only flaws-and minor ones too-is the limiting 30 GB hard drive that can get filled up far too quickly and it's small screen. While 15.6 is a standard size, it can be hard to read sometimes nontheless.

Yet this laptop is a great bargain for the price as is. Still, once I got it I decided to upgrade the hard drive and get a mouse to replace the sometimes troublesome pointing stick. If you need a good laptop but don't have a major budget, this is the one to get.

Ron

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I am very happy with my laptop, of course it is not brand new, I bought mine used, but it looks and works like brand new. The manufacturer was very easy to work with and was very determined to get me a product that I would love!

Best Deals for Dell Latitude D600 14.1-Inch Laptop - 512MB RAM, 30GB Hard Drive

Good to have if you're just starting out in college. Has the basic Microsoft 2003 office programs, along with some other goodies. It's been alot more than I expected it to be. Very good price for an awesome computer.

Honest reviews on Dell Latitude D600 14.1-Inch Laptop - 512MB RAM, 30GB Hard Drive

Loaded with USEFUL programs.

Perfect for a college student/or anyone who just wants to sit on the couch and work/surfing net/etc.

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Item got her in two days. We had questions and got super fast response and Exellent service. Very happy with laptop and customer service.